Two LaChapelle books you want to get your hands on

An epic final chapter

The wait is over: the two (!) last books of David LaChapelle are here. Two colourful books, featuring dazzling portraits of our world’s best known celebrities and a colourful examination of what our world looks like today.

After LaChapelle Land (1996), Hotel LaChapelle (1999), and Heaven to Hell (2006), the final two books in David LaChapelle’s five-book anthology are almost here. Lost + Found, Part I is as colourful as a candy store, and expresses LaChapelles critical vision on the times we’re living in. It’s a vision LaChapelle formed over the years, which he spent as a controversial and mysterious photographer. At the start of his career, he was hired by artist Andy Warhol himself. Warhol offered him his first job as a photographer at ‘Interview Magazine’, where LaChapelle would start with taking pictures of the world’s most recognisable faces. Lost + Found, Part I also boasts the world’s biggest stars, such as Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse and Pharrell Williams. Though you might not recognise her immediately, Miley Cyrus is on the book’s cover. Cyrus is nearly naked, wearing nothing but a Swarovski bodysuit, as she makes a a pixie-esque appearance in a jail cell.

After LaChapelle became world famous for his (celebrity) photography, he picked up directing. He made a lot of iconic music videos, and eventually directed the feature urban dance film RIZE. When that movie didn’t find its way to a large audience, LaChapelle decided to pack up his career as a commercial photographer in 2006.

Over ten years later, however, LaChapelle publishes two books with both fine art and celebrity portraits. The ‘creative renaissance’ of LaChapelle ends with Good News, Part II, a coffee table book that surrounds themes as mortality, heaven and paradise. The book combines a series of pictures that have never before been published in book form, which will form the last chapter to LaChapelle’s five-book narrative.

An epic final chapterThe counterpart of Cyrus is ‘ballet’s bad boy’ Sergei Polunin: the notorious ballet dancer decorates the cover of Good News, Part II. Polunin and LaChapelle have a history together: one of the reasons Polunin is such a popular dancer, was the Hozier video ‘Take Me To Church’ – which was directed by Mr. LaChapelle and launched Polunin as a viral sensation.

There are more than only portraits to be found in LaChapelle’s Lost + Found, Part I. One of the ways LaChapelle is making his critical points, is through ‘LAND SCAPES’: a series of pictures show ‘LaChapellised’ versions of everyday industrial areas. He explained to VICE that “these are monuments of the industrial revolution. Nothing ever has as much impact on our world since the ice age.”